The next morning when Yugi awoke, he found his Yami sitting in the window seat and watching out the glass pane at the ranch below.
"Yami," the boy said in surprise, "have you been up all night?"
"Mostly," Yami Yugi replied with a nod.
"Did anything . . . strange happen?" Yugi asked worriedly.
"I haven't seen anything," Yami Yugi said slowly.
That was when Tea knocked on the door frantically. "Yugi!!" she screamed. "Yugi!!!"
Shocked, the violet-eyed boy hurried to the door and opened it. "What's wrong, Tea?" he gasped. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"No, but I think I might've heard one!" Tea replied shakily.
Instantly Yami Yugi came to attention. "When was this?" he demanded.
"Just now," Tea replied, her blue eyes wide. "Mai was in the shower, so she didn't hear it."
"Well, what did 'it' sound like?" Yugi asked in concern.
"Like a really painful moan!" Tea told him. "It was coming from the other side of the wall!"
Without another word Yugi and his Yami both immediately ran to Tea's room and began surveying the walls.
"Do you hear anything?" Tea wanted to know when she saw Yami Yugi press himself against the wood and listen intently.
"Not a thing," the Pharaoh said, shaking his head. "We should find out what's on the other side of this wall."
"Well, it's not an outside wall," Yugi mused, "and it doesn't connect with one of the other guest rooms . . . unless there's maybe someone else here that we didn't know about," he added in realization.
"Maybe we should find out," Tea said worriedly. "Whoever it was sounded like they were in a lot of pain!"
"Gosh, I hope it wasn't one of the others trapped somewhere," Yugi exclaimed then.
To Yugi's relief, everyone soon gathered in the dining room unharmed. However, many of them also had strange experiences to tell.
"I can't believe you actually heard some girl calling your name in the middle of the night," Mai remarked to Marik, looking concerned. "Who would it have been?"
"I can't imagine," Marik replied, shaking his head. "She didn't sound familiar at all."
"Oreo saw something very odd, but I don't know what it was," Bakura spoke up from where he was petting the feline, who purred loudly in happiness. "All of a sudden I woke up hearing her growling and hissing at an apparently empty chair!"
"Didn't Yami B see it too?" Joey asked.
"No," Bakura told him. "He was asleep, and when I tried to wake him up, Oreo immediately calmed down. It made me wonder if the presence had left because it knew my Yami could've seen and possibly identified it."
Yami Bakura growled angrily and glanced about, obviously wishing that they were anywhere else instead of on this ranch.
"This place just gives me the shivers!" Ms. Myrvyn declared. "I'm so glad that none of us have to stay in our rooms alone!"
"Did something strange happen to you too?" Tristan queried.
"Actually, yes," the heiress replied. "I saw a frightening shadow on my wall!"
"Maybe it was just the moon reflectin' something," Joey suggested.
"It most certainly wasn't!" Ms. Myrvyn retorted. "It started to spring at me and only stopped and disappeared when I screamed bloody murder!"
Ishizu remained silent throughout all of this, but she looked immensely concerned. Quickly she exchanged a glance with Yami Yugi and then let her gaze drift to the window nearby.
That was when Bart approached them suddenly and without warning. "Well, hello, y'all," he grinned. "Hope ya slept well last night!"
"Oh yes, extremely peacefully," Mai said dryly, crossing her arms.
One by one everyone again related their experiences while Bart listened in concern.
"Can you tell us about the room on the other side of Tea's?" Yami Yugi asked him, narrowing his eyes.
"Well now, I don't rightly know how to, seeing as there is no room there," Bart said haltingly.
"What?!" Tea cried.
"Come with me and I'll show you." Bart headed for a back stairway and gestured for everyone to follow him, which they did.
As they approached the top, they all—especially Tea, Mai, Yugi, and Yami Yugi—were shocked to see that there was a panel in the wall right at the landing.
"Now, we havta be careful opening this," Bart cautioned. "'Cause sometimes it can be difficult, and if you're not careful, you'll go rollin' all the way back down the stairs." With that he slid the panel open very carefully and revealed that the opening led to Tea's room.
"Oh!" Yugi gasped in astonishment as they all slowly walked inside.
"But I don't get it," Mai said with a blink. "Why didn't anyone see that panel in here?"
Bart grinned and moved it shut. Instantly it disappeared, blending in with the rest of the wall exactly and completely. "That's why," he said. "It can only be opened from the other side. From this side, you can't even tell where it is."
"Well, I know I heard something!" Tea said hotly.
"Maybe Joey found the stairs and decided to play a prank by making fake moans," Tristan smirked.
"Heeeeey!!" Joey retorted in irritation.
Bart chuckled. "Well, I can't imagine what you could've heard, little missy," he said with a shrug as he led everyone out into the hall again. "I was right by that staircase for ages this morning, and no one went up or came down."
Tea fumed, certain that Bart didn't even believe that she'd heard a thing.
****
After breakfast, Bart leaned back and looked out the window. "Well, storm's over," he announced. The sky was still cloudy, but it didn't appear threatening. "Hopefully Mike and Carter can get the phone line up and running before too long."
"'Mike and Carter'?" Yugi repeated.
"That's right," Bart drawled. "More ranch hands. They're handy with the electricity and stuff like that. Me, well, I'm only good at takin' care of the animals. Oh, speakin' of which . . ." He stood up abruptly and stared, apparently seeing something extremely odd.
"What is it?" Bakura wondered.
"Dangnabit!" Bart growled, heading for the door. "It's Lonestar!! He's escaped from the stable again!!" With that he ran outside, leaving the unexpected guests still at the table.
"Lonestar must be a horse," Bakura remarked.
"Maybe we should see if we could help catch him," Yugi suggested.
"Hey, what the heck do we know about horses?" Joey retorted.
Before anyone could answer him, another horrific crash echoed about and Yugi leaped up. "Well, I'm going to help!" he exclaimed. Before long the others followed him. It wasn't until much later that they realized Joan had stayed behind.
****
Yugi ran out into the pasture, looking about for any sign of the runaway horse.
"He's over there!" Bart yelled. "The thing's a menace!!"
Yugi looked to see a beautiful white stallion ramming into several heavy metal cans and knocking them over. Since he was downhill, the cans started rolling right toward him. With a gasp the boy leaped out of the way and dashed off toward the fleeing horse, but it soon vanished into the nearby woods, its hoofs galloping frantically on the ground.
"That's the third time this month!" Bart said hotly, throwing his hat to the ground in frustration.
"Is there anything we can do to help catch him?" Yugi asked, out of breath from running.
Bart looked at him, intrigued, then up at the others. "Can anyone ride a horse?" he wanted to know. "We'll need to split up and go off lookin' for Lonestar before he gets too far away."
"I can ride one," Marik spoke up. True, he had only ridden the beasts once or twice, but he was certain he could easily get the hang of it.
"I can too," Yugi volunteered.
Yami Yugi gave him a hard look. "I don't know, Yugi," he said slowly.
"I'll be fine, Yami," Yugi smiled. "Don't worry."
Eventually Bakura and Tea also offered their help and Bart quickly brought out four horses for the teens and another for himself.
Joey watched with interest. "Oh, what the heck, I'll go too," he said.
"We'll go in groups of two," Bart directed a couple of minutes later, "and if anyone gets lost, just holler as loud as you can. I don't want any disasters here," he said sternly.
"What should the rest of us do?" Mai asked.
"See how much damage Lonestar caused this time and try to mind the ranch!" Bart called over his shoulder.
"Well, this should be fun," Mai said sardonically, sitting on one of the over-turned cans.
Tristan just stared ahead, blinking in shock.
"What is it, Taylor?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I saw someone on a horse over there," Tristan exclaimed, pointing, "but now they've just disappeared!"
****
As Bakura rode along on his galloping horse, he wasn't surprised when the Ring flashed and his Yami joined him—but he was definitely startled.
"Yami!" he cried. "What are you doing?!"
Yami Bakura sneered as he took the reins. "Making certain nothing happens to you, dolt," he snorted. "You don't even know how to ride a horse!"
"Neither do you!!" Bakura screamed in terror as his appaloosa—named Firefly—suddenly burst forward with alarming speed.
Yami Bakura only laughed raucously as they whipped around a corner, seeming to enjoy Bakura's discomfort. Frightened, the boy clung to the old thief frantically, not wanting to fall off.
"Meow?" Oreo exclaimed suddenly, peeking up from inside Yami Bakura's shirt.
"Foolish feline," Yami Bakura retorted.
Joey stared at them in disbelief. "Man, I'm glad I'm not in your place, Bakura," he said firmly.
****
Yugi's palomino was trotting peacefully when something abruptly startled it and it stood completely still, staring ahead at apparently nothing.
"What's wrong?" Yugi blinked. "Do you see Lonestar?"
The palomino—which Bart had said was named Dandelion—whinnied and stamped on the ground, apparently becoming nervous at something. Suddenly it bolted forward, causing Yugi to cry out in surprise and shock.
"Yugi!!" Tea gasped, immediately giving chase.
**Yugi, I knew this was a bad idea,** Yami Yugi said from inside the Puzzle.
~It's okay, Yami,~ Yugi returned. ~I have it under control!~ Outwardly his eyes widened and he let out a yelp as Dandelion flew over a small creek to land safely on the other side—or so he thought.
From out of the woods came a dark black stallion ridden by a hooded figure in a cloak. The new arrival bore down fiercely on the exact same path and Dandelion reared up, sending Yugi flying backward into the water. As the boy looked up, coughing and sputtering, he discovered that the hooded figure's horse was about to run him down!
"Yami," the boy said in surprise, "have you been up all night?"
"Mostly," Yami Yugi replied with a nod.
"Did anything . . . strange happen?" Yugi asked worriedly.
"I haven't seen anything," Yami Yugi said slowly.
That was when Tea knocked on the door frantically. "Yugi!!" she screamed. "Yugi!!!"
Shocked, the violet-eyed boy hurried to the door and opened it. "What's wrong, Tea?" he gasped. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
"No, but I think I might've heard one!" Tea replied shakily.
Instantly Yami Yugi came to attention. "When was this?" he demanded.
"Just now," Tea replied, her blue eyes wide. "Mai was in the shower, so she didn't hear it."
"Well, what did 'it' sound like?" Yugi asked in concern.
"Like a really painful moan!" Tea told him. "It was coming from the other side of the wall!"
Without another word Yugi and his Yami both immediately ran to Tea's room and began surveying the walls.
"Do you hear anything?" Tea wanted to know when she saw Yami Yugi press himself against the wood and listen intently.
"Not a thing," the Pharaoh said, shaking his head. "We should find out what's on the other side of this wall."
"Well, it's not an outside wall," Yugi mused, "and it doesn't connect with one of the other guest rooms . . . unless there's maybe someone else here that we didn't know about," he added in realization.
"Maybe we should find out," Tea said worriedly. "Whoever it was sounded like they were in a lot of pain!"
"Gosh, I hope it wasn't one of the others trapped somewhere," Yugi exclaimed then.
To Yugi's relief, everyone soon gathered in the dining room unharmed. However, many of them also had strange experiences to tell.
"I can't believe you actually heard some girl calling your name in the middle of the night," Mai remarked to Marik, looking concerned. "Who would it have been?"
"I can't imagine," Marik replied, shaking his head. "She didn't sound familiar at all."
"Oreo saw something very odd, but I don't know what it was," Bakura spoke up from where he was petting the feline, who purred loudly in happiness. "All of a sudden I woke up hearing her growling and hissing at an apparently empty chair!"
"Didn't Yami B see it too?" Joey asked.
"No," Bakura told him. "He was asleep, and when I tried to wake him up, Oreo immediately calmed down. It made me wonder if the presence had left because it knew my Yami could've seen and possibly identified it."
Yami Bakura growled angrily and glanced about, obviously wishing that they were anywhere else instead of on this ranch.
"This place just gives me the shivers!" Ms. Myrvyn declared. "I'm so glad that none of us have to stay in our rooms alone!"
"Did something strange happen to you too?" Tristan queried.
"Actually, yes," the heiress replied. "I saw a frightening shadow on my wall!"
"Maybe it was just the moon reflectin' something," Joey suggested.
"It most certainly wasn't!" Ms. Myrvyn retorted. "It started to spring at me and only stopped and disappeared when I screamed bloody murder!"
Ishizu remained silent throughout all of this, but she looked immensely concerned. Quickly she exchanged a glance with Yami Yugi and then let her gaze drift to the window nearby.
That was when Bart approached them suddenly and without warning. "Well, hello, y'all," he grinned. "Hope ya slept well last night!"
"Oh yes, extremely peacefully," Mai said dryly, crossing her arms.
One by one everyone again related their experiences while Bart listened in concern.
"Can you tell us about the room on the other side of Tea's?" Yami Yugi asked him, narrowing his eyes.
"Well now, I don't rightly know how to, seeing as there is no room there," Bart said haltingly.
"What?!" Tea cried.
"Come with me and I'll show you." Bart headed for a back stairway and gestured for everyone to follow him, which they did.
As they approached the top, they all—especially Tea, Mai, Yugi, and Yami Yugi—were shocked to see that there was a panel in the wall right at the landing.
"Now, we havta be careful opening this," Bart cautioned. "'Cause sometimes it can be difficult, and if you're not careful, you'll go rollin' all the way back down the stairs." With that he slid the panel open very carefully and revealed that the opening led to Tea's room.
"Oh!" Yugi gasped in astonishment as they all slowly walked inside.
"But I don't get it," Mai said with a blink. "Why didn't anyone see that panel in here?"
Bart grinned and moved it shut. Instantly it disappeared, blending in with the rest of the wall exactly and completely. "That's why," he said. "It can only be opened from the other side. From this side, you can't even tell where it is."
"Well, I know I heard something!" Tea said hotly.
"Maybe Joey found the stairs and decided to play a prank by making fake moans," Tristan smirked.
"Heeeeey!!" Joey retorted in irritation.
Bart chuckled. "Well, I can't imagine what you could've heard, little missy," he said with a shrug as he led everyone out into the hall again. "I was right by that staircase for ages this morning, and no one went up or came down."
Tea fumed, certain that Bart didn't even believe that she'd heard a thing.
****
After breakfast, Bart leaned back and looked out the window. "Well, storm's over," he announced. The sky was still cloudy, but it didn't appear threatening. "Hopefully Mike and Carter can get the phone line up and running before too long."
"'Mike and Carter'?" Yugi repeated.
"That's right," Bart drawled. "More ranch hands. They're handy with the electricity and stuff like that. Me, well, I'm only good at takin' care of the animals. Oh, speakin' of which . . ." He stood up abruptly and stared, apparently seeing something extremely odd.
"What is it?" Bakura wondered.
"Dangnabit!" Bart growled, heading for the door. "It's Lonestar!! He's escaped from the stable again!!" With that he ran outside, leaving the unexpected guests still at the table.
"Lonestar must be a horse," Bakura remarked.
"Maybe we should see if we could help catch him," Yugi suggested.
"Hey, what the heck do we know about horses?" Joey retorted.
Before anyone could answer him, another horrific crash echoed about and Yugi leaped up. "Well, I'm going to help!" he exclaimed. Before long the others followed him. It wasn't until much later that they realized Joan had stayed behind.
****
Yugi ran out into the pasture, looking about for any sign of the runaway horse.
"He's over there!" Bart yelled. "The thing's a menace!!"
Yugi looked to see a beautiful white stallion ramming into several heavy metal cans and knocking them over. Since he was downhill, the cans started rolling right toward him. With a gasp the boy leaped out of the way and dashed off toward the fleeing horse, but it soon vanished into the nearby woods, its hoofs galloping frantically on the ground.
"That's the third time this month!" Bart said hotly, throwing his hat to the ground in frustration.
"Is there anything we can do to help catch him?" Yugi asked, out of breath from running.
Bart looked at him, intrigued, then up at the others. "Can anyone ride a horse?" he wanted to know. "We'll need to split up and go off lookin' for Lonestar before he gets too far away."
"I can ride one," Marik spoke up. True, he had only ridden the beasts once or twice, but he was certain he could easily get the hang of it.
"I can too," Yugi volunteered.
Yami Yugi gave him a hard look. "I don't know, Yugi," he said slowly.
"I'll be fine, Yami," Yugi smiled. "Don't worry."
Eventually Bakura and Tea also offered their help and Bart quickly brought out four horses for the teens and another for himself.
Joey watched with interest. "Oh, what the heck, I'll go too," he said.
"We'll go in groups of two," Bart directed a couple of minutes later, "and if anyone gets lost, just holler as loud as you can. I don't want any disasters here," he said sternly.
"What should the rest of us do?" Mai asked.
"See how much damage Lonestar caused this time and try to mind the ranch!" Bart called over his shoulder.
"Well, this should be fun," Mai said sardonically, sitting on one of the over-turned cans.
Tristan just stared ahead, blinking in shock.
"What is it, Taylor?" Seto asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I saw someone on a horse over there," Tristan exclaimed, pointing, "but now they've just disappeared!"
****
As Bakura rode along on his galloping horse, he wasn't surprised when the Ring flashed and his Yami joined him—but he was definitely startled.
"Yami!" he cried. "What are you doing?!"
Yami Bakura sneered as he took the reins. "Making certain nothing happens to you, dolt," he snorted. "You don't even know how to ride a horse!"
"Neither do you!!" Bakura screamed in terror as his appaloosa—named Firefly—suddenly burst forward with alarming speed.
Yami Bakura only laughed raucously as they whipped around a corner, seeming to enjoy Bakura's discomfort. Frightened, the boy clung to the old thief frantically, not wanting to fall off.
"Meow?" Oreo exclaimed suddenly, peeking up from inside Yami Bakura's shirt.
"Foolish feline," Yami Bakura retorted.
Joey stared at them in disbelief. "Man, I'm glad I'm not in your place, Bakura," he said firmly.
****
Yugi's palomino was trotting peacefully when something abruptly startled it and it stood completely still, staring ahead at apparently nothing.
"What's wrong?" Yugi blinked. "Do you see Lonestar?"
The palomino—which Bart had said was named Dandelion—whinnied and stamped on the ground, apparently becoming nervous at something. Suddenly it bolted forward, causing Yugi to cry out in surprise and shock.
"Yugi!!" Tea gasped, immediately giving chase.
**Yugi, I knew this was a bad idea,** Yami Yugi said from inside the Puzzle.
~It's okay, Yami,~ Yugi returned. ~I have it under control!~ Outwardly his eyes widened and he let out a yelp as Dandelion flew over a small creek to land safely on the other side—or so he thought.
From out of the woods came a dark black stallion ridden by a hooded figure in a cloak. The new arrival bore down fiercely on the exact same path and Dandelion reared up, sending Yugi flying backward into the water. As the boy looked up, coughing and sputtering, he discovered that the hooded figure's horse was about to run him down!